Bangladesh project launch

A new partnership was launched on 22 May 2017 between Australia and Bangladesh to study water resource management in the northwest region of Bangladesh, the most productive cropping region in the country.

Australia’s national research agency CSIRO will lead the study. It is funded through the Australian aid program, the Sustainable Development Investment Portfolio. Researchers and policy makers from the two countries will collaborate to understand the sustainable level of water use, particularly groundwater use, for irrigation in the region.

Central to the project is understanding and defining the sustainable level of water use for irrigation and the impact on the socio-economy and livelihood of the farmers, including women, in the northwest region of Bangladesh. The project is scheduled to be completed by October 2020. The project follows on from the Bangladesh Integrated Water Resources Assessment (BIWRA) project during 2010-2014 funded by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (then AusAID) – CSIRO Alliance and the scoping study conducted through SDIP Phase-I.